We’re back! 5 reasons to attend the WFA Enterprise Conference this fall

1. We’re bringing together the IT industry to answer the all-important question: What’s next?

The world of work is about to change…yet again. Although 2020 threw a curveball at organizations’ long-term digital transformation plans, it provided a unique opportunity to rethink IT strategies. The reality is that organization are in flux over when and how to return employees to work—if at all. In the UK, fifty of the biggest employers stated they have no plans to return all staff to the office full-time in the near future as social distancing remains firmly in place. In the US, half of executives (55%) expect to extend options for most of their office workers to work from home at least one day a week post-COVID, up from the 39% of companies who did so before the pandemic.
The question of what’s coming up next is a particularly interesting one for IT. With more organizations relinquishing office-centric approaches to the digital workplace to make space for Work From Anywhere, IT must ready their infrastructures to support a more distributed workforce. During the height of the pandemic, surveyed US employees stated that the IT infrastructure couldn’t support remote workers, with over a third experiencing longer wait times to get issues resolved and two-thirds experiencing repeat issues. It feels like the right time to talk about what’s next for organizations and IT in light of the learnings from 2020.
Industry experts will be discussing everything from formulating the business case for WFA and the human impact of remote working, to the technologies that are available to support this future of work.

2. The conference is bigger, with 2 tracks per day, 6 themes and many more speakers

If you attended this summer’s WFA conference, you’ll remember the breadth of sessions we had available. Well, expect more—many more—session this fall because we’ll be running two tracks in parallel over two days. The first will focus on top considerations for IT leaders and the second on the technology to drive forward your transition to a modern WFA enterprise.
That’s a lot of sessions, we hear you cry! Not to worry; to make it easier for you to create your own custom agenda, each session is focused around one of six themes, broken down by track type. IT leaders can expect topics centered around:

• IT strategy
• The human factor
• The case for WFA

While our deep tech track will focus on:

• Endpoint management and security
• Digital experience management
• ITSM

Intrigued? Check out the full agenda here.
It goes without saying that expanding the number of sessions calls for many more industry thought leaders. We’ll be confirming new speakers over the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for updates. In the meantime, here’s one speaker you won’t want to miss…

3. We’re going to the remotest location in the universe with Captain Scott Kelly

You read that correctly! We’re thrilled to have astronaut Captain Scott Kelly join us for the WFA Conference this fall to share his tips on how to overcome feelings of isolation and loneliness when working remotely, which he knows very well having spent a whole year in space.
While we’re eagerly anticipating what Kelly has to say about remote working on the most extreme scale, the space geeks in us can’t pass up the opportunity to find out what life in space is really like. So, expect a fun, informative and insightful session that’s not to miss!
You’ll also have an opportunity to take part in the session. Register for the conference to be in with a chance of getting your questions answered by Scott Kelly himself.

4. Expect a more immersive experience

This time, there’ll be a substantial number of roundtables hosted by both session speakers and guest hosts to get you up, close and personal with industry experts. These roundtables will be available on a first come, first served basis as numbers are limited to provide a more intimate experience for attendees and facilitate a more open, collaborative discussion. We’ll be announcing the roundtable topics and hosts in the coming weeks so watch this space.
Attendees at the summer conference gave us overwhelmingly positive feedback about the level of engagement and interaction for a virtual event, so we’re making the whole conference feel even more interactive and personal. Expect an even better platform experience, including a virtual drinks and networking event to close the conference on 18 November. There’ll be a few fun surprises for those who can attend that promise to dazzle and delight, so don’t miss out!

5. We’ll be announcing product updates and new primary research exclusively at the conference

We had rave reviews for our product sessions at the summer conference, namely the Tachyon Masterclass and product strategy sessions . This fall, we’re excited to share with you all the latest developments in our product roadmap to help organizations tackle the transition to the Work From Anywhere Enterprise. We also be announcing cool new products exclusively at the conference. As always, our Solution Experts will be on hand in the Networking Lounge for one-to-one discussions about your IT challenges.
We’ll also be following up our digital workplace research, Employee experiences with universal remote working since COVID, with a fresh survey on IT’s readiness for Work From Anywhere. We’re asking IT about how they’ve coped with the mass shift to remote working and what they need to support employees working anywhere in 2021 and beyond. 1E’s CEO, Sumir Karayi, will be exclusively sharing the results of the research at the conference.
There’s lots to look forward to at this fall’s Work From Anywhere Enterprise Conference. Save your seat now and keep an eye out for more updates in the coming weeks.